Howdy, y’all!

My name is 77,97,114,116,105,110,97anitraM. Just after wife to Neil, and momma to seven kiddos - toddler to tween, teen, young adult and everything in between - I am the founder - creator - blogress of Catholic Sistas. There is something for everyone here, so don't let me stop you. Jump in and start reading! Feel free to introduce yourself here. And...welcome, friend.

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Meet MARTINA

Martina, left, with friends at a recent Called & Gifted Workshop

Hi, my name is Martina. ::waving hello:: Who am I? Just after wife to my husband Neil, and mother to seven – and a homeschooling momma at that, I am the foundress and contributing blogger {called Ink Slingers ’round these parts here} of Catholic Sistas. My skills include leadership, networking, moderating online groups, connecting people of similar interests, ideas, projects, idea powerhouse, photographer for more than 20 years, ingenuity when it comes to problem solving, project hound, all around jack-of-all trades.

SPEAKING AND CONSULTING

I would love to consider speaking for your event! Although no topic is off limits {within reason, people! 😉 }, I do typically limit it to subjects I have specifically written about, so please have a look at my writings here on Catholic Sistas OR you can scroll to the bottom for a list and brief summary of my favorite posts. Sometimes, for friends, I will sit down and talk to them about the impact Catholic Sistas is having in social media, its importance, and how to get the most out of your social media platforms to enhance your specific Catholic project, be it blogging, running a Catholic apostolate, your business as a Catholic, and even your Catholic parish. To date, I have consulted with companies like CCC of America and TAN Books and TAN Homeschool. Let’s see what we can accomplish together! Please feel free to contact me for more details on speaking or for consulting.

MENTIONED, PROFILED, INTERVIEWED

§ My very first radio interview with then Austin Relevant Radio personality, DeeAnn Smith. {excuse the ums and uhs}

THE LONG AND SHORT OF IT ALL, BUT MOSTLY THE LONG

Have you read my initial bio on the Ink Slingers page? Can I interest you in reading all of the other ladies’ wonderful bios, too, please and thank you? 😉 If you haven’t read either, I can wait…for a little bit.

::random opening of browser tabs while waiting::

Oh, you’re back? Great! Now that we’ve avoided that potentially awkward moment in which I over share with you as though we are besties, I can now jump in and tell you more about myself! I was born and raised in Texas {no, we don’t say reared} – born in Houston, moved to South Austin in my early childhood and spent the rest of my childhood through high school in a small town in the heart of the Piney Woods of East Texas where a good chunk of my kinfolk still lives. While my childhood in East Texas was filled with silly lamenting at how much I missed the big city of Austin, I now understand and appreciate the slow-paced life that small town life brings. In a world obsessed with being on the fast track, getting the latest whatzit and gizmo and looking to move up in the world to that larger house and better car, I am finding myself on the opposite track having recently sold our too large home and instead buying a smaller home with loads of charm. Now that we are just minutes from our home parish where we sometimes spend an average of five or more trips per week, not including Mass, I feel a sense of connectedness to our parish community, and our larger community. I’ve come to the conclusion that society needs to reclaim a little more Texas friendly; ya know, the folks who wave in the neighborhood as you pass or go out of their way to be friendly and talk to you, have a friendly conversation with the gal checker at the store. We need more ofthat. Our lives don’t have to be self-imposed madness. At the end of the day, if we have an inviting atmosphere at home, wonderful food to eat, and loving family and friends to share our lives with, we can count ourselves infinitely blessed.

WEIRD, FUN & POINTLESS FACTS

1. I am still a diehard Oiler fan, even though they 1) no longer exist and/or 2) now go by the name Titans. If you don’t understand this, it’s ok. You were not born in or lived in Houston prior to 1996, or even Texas, and do not understand how deeply our loyalty runs or that it’s just part and parcel to our identity as Texans. Allow me to explain further in #3.

2. My first language was Spanish even though I don’t remember speaking it as a child and eventually forgot it altogether and relearned it – somewhat – in high school Spanish.

3. As a youngster, I grew up in South Austin. Those who are native Austinites or are vetted only by a long history of living in the Austin area understand this very important distinction between “south of the river” {aka Bubbaland} and “north of the river” {called Town Lake} – it pained me when we bought our first home in North Austin that was spitting distance to Round Rock. Like, literally. The house behind us was Round Rock.

4. In fourth grade, I attended Karolyi Camp and met the world famous gymnastics coach, Bela and his wife Marta.

5. I learned to drive standard in high school on my dad’s burnt orange and white CJ7.

::if you’re busy looking up a CJ7, tsk tsk!::

Me, on the far right with other yearbook editors.

6. I was yearbook photographer in high school, and served as photo editor my senior year, a job I thoroughly enjoyed. We won’t discuss whether I gave myself the best assignments or whether I took the leftovers.

7. In eleventh grade, I was fortunate enough to photograph our high school regional football championship game – at Texas Stadium; however, our team lost that game. It was tied in the final few seconds and in high school football – at that time – the team with the best stats would break the tie and win. We had no idea that one Phil Dawson would kick a 52 yard field goal IN THE WIND to beat our team. Don’t believe me? Watch and see. As a Longhorn, this grieves me doubly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEsWUNs1_lA

8. I declined to be on a television show for my photography called Name Your Adventure that was hosted by Mario Lopez. I instead opted to attend my high school graduation. Missed opportunity? Tell me what you think in the comments section.

An in-between snack before the reception at Dell Children’s Museum in Austin.

9. I am a graduate of The University of Texas at Austin where I got a degree in what? Yeah, Spanish – language with a minor in Business Foundations. Think phonetics, grammar, linguistics. It was actually a lot of fun! I still don’t speak Spanish much…maybe after a margarita or three. My original degree track was photojournalism with a double minor in Spanish and Accounting.

10. I used to do wedding photography with one of the most popular photographers in the Austin area, Ron Parks. He is a fellow Catholic who shot our wedding and has seen our family grow over the years.

11. I met my husband online – and, no, not a Catholic online match service since they didn’t exist yet. Good old fashioned AOL.

12. It about killed me when we moved from Austin to Round Rock {to be two minutes from our parish}, thereby losing my legitimately hard-earned rights to say I lived in Austin. Local rules dictate I say I’m in the “Austin area” now because a) you can’t live in another city and say you are from Austin – you just can’t do that and b) almost no one – except the good folks at Relevant Radio who LOVE Round Rock – knows where Round Rock is. I may as well say Brownsville. {and now you’re looking up Brownsville, amiright?}

13. I have crazy fasts labors. How fast? Our #4 kiddo was BORN IN THE CAR at 2:30 a.m. after less than one hour of labor because, yup, I give birth with the mentality of “ain’t nobody got time for that!” We didn’t make it to the birthing center, so we pulled up into the local library parking lot – he was much better than any old book, lemme tell ya! We showed up at the birthing center with bebe in arms and EMS waiting to whisk us away due to my being GBS positive. I give credit to my German-born no-nonsense midwife who looked over #4 and saw he looked good so that we could send EMS on their way. You’ll laugh when I tell you that not only were we back home in time for breakfast, this wasn’t even my shortest labor! My longest labor was my first at 3.5 hours, and they have gotten progressively shorter, with my most recent being 20 minutes active labor.

ELOCUTIONIST, I AIN’T

If you’ve followed my series entitled Confessions of The Original Online Junkie so far, you have seen how I have been shaping up some of my experiences online over the past 18 years and counting in an effort to be able to speak at your event. My public speaking experience goes back to 1998 when I gave my first tour as a gallery assistant at the Austin Children’s Museum to a smallllll group of homeschoolers. Think four kids – total. After that initial wave of nausea and panic settled, I became more comfortable with speaking and was quickly moved thrown into giving tours to groups of several hundred excited and squeal-y little kiddos {and their chaperones} who wanted to hear less about my spiel and rules about Creation Station, and instead wanted to hear more about my hushing up so they could play. My confidence and enthusiasm grew and, in time, giving tours was a lot of fun. While I am a tad rusty in the giving-speeches-in-front-of-dizzying-sized-groups area, my passion for talking about the Faith is even more present than it was for the museum.

MY FAVORITE SCRIBBLES

While I would not personally consider myself to be a person of the letters, scribe, wordsmith, writer, sayer of cool things, etc., I know God works with whatever we give Him, as long as we are doing all we can to glorify Him. It is because of my ultimate confidence in His ability to mold my train wreck thoughts and words into something that I give in to writing so that they can help inspire others to love Jesus even just a teensy bit more.

Confessions of the Original Online Junkie* – series debut,part one and two. In this two-part series debut, I share my own testimony of being online and the impact it’s had in my faith walk. I use this as the springboard for many of my other installments, in which I tackle other real life issues, from online addiction, to internet etiquette {or internetiquette}, parenting teenagers online, how to participate in parish ministries while keeping your house from going up in flames, etc.

Calming Cyber Space Cravings* – A first defense look at battling online addiction, I share my testimony in my own weaknesses of being online over the years. I also share some practical tips in how to identify those cravings as well as ideas on how to combat the need to be online all the time.

One Cannot Live Online Alone* – This is my testimony of the realization that being online only in matters of studying the Faith was no longer practical and how I moved out of being online exclusively to being involved in my parish.

How to Avoid Internet Road Rage,* part one and two – Witnessing behavior unbefitting of other Catholics in the comboxes {or even in ourselves} is almost inevitable. In this two-part series, I dive into some practicals of how to engage in online discussion.

Your Teen and Social Media* – A topic very near and dear to my heart, given that I once was the teen online, I give you some practical solutions to your day-to-day battle with tweens and teens and how to strike that balance with social media without losing your mind, values…or hair.

Of Ministries, Apostolates, and Crop Rotations? – This post looks at how to get the most out of parish ministries while finding balance between that and the home.

How Not to Evangelize, part one and two – In this two part series, I share a little bit about my personal history of evangelizing {rather, how terrible I was at it} first and then share a list of ways that turns others away from the Faith.

How To Evangelize – After spending time to write two posts on how not to evangelize, I finally get to the heart of the matter and share ways for you to actively witness the Faith to others.

19 Ways to Live Your Crazy Catholic Life– When our lives are crazy busy, sometimes it’s good to step back and look and see what’s causing our life to spin out of control. I share with you some simple ways to reel your life back in and regain control, without giving up everything you love!

Express Yourself

I met Martina in Jr. High when we were cheerleaders together. Yes, she was a cheerleader! But our real friendship began when we were thrown into the task of creating and editing the yearbook for our high school. Martina was photo editor and I was the editor, which meant we spent long hours together working along aside each other. That’s where my admiration for her began. But, I think my true love for her began as I stood in her church as a young woman and watched her first baby be baptized. This began a journey of talks about faith, motherhood, being a good wife, standing up for our beliefs, and oh so much more! She has been an inspiration and yes, a cheerleader for me, for more years than I want to count. What a blessing to call her friend! ::picture taken from junior high yearbook::~ childhood friend Amanda LongI feel blessed to work with Martina at the CatholicSistas blog. I have grown so much in my own faith through the calling to write. Martina has been instrumental in that growth- encouraging me to write pieces that were difficult to share, studying alongside of me to make sure we have a good grasp on Church teachings, providing friendship, love, and support in times of need. As the founder of the blog she had a vision that God would use us to spread His holy word, however, I think what she ended up founding was not only a blog but a family. I am incredibly thankful to be a part of that family. What we are doing at the CatholicSistas is touching the lives of our readers, encouraging people to dive into their faith, and hopefully leading others to Christ. Without Martina’s leadership, compassion, and drive we would have never succeeded in this way. I am so thankful to be a part of something so amazing and uplifting. ::Martina and Michelle enjoy being goofy::~ friend and fellow contributor, Michelle Fritz

Martina is a cradle Catholic, wife to Neil, and mother to seven kiddos here {and three in heaven}– 4/96-1/17. She decided to homeschool the kiddos in 2010 after many years in public schools and is currently transitioning out of homeschooling. She is the creator of Catholic Sistas which focuses on a feminine perspective of the Catholic Faith. The website was the result of an existing camaraderie by the contributors in a Catholic women’s group she created. She is also a Seal of Approval evaluator for the Catholic Writers Guild. Lest you think she spends all her time online, Martina has enjoyed getting out into the community by serving on the Pastoral Council from 2010-2013. She is constantly on the lookout to make her parish as welcoming as the small town she grew up in East Texas. This task is not easy given that St. William is the largest parish in the Austin diocese, serving well over twenty thousand parishioners. She loves Jesus, coffee, bacon, chocolate, photography, more bacon, evangelizing, and the company of those unafraid to use their sense of humor.

Catholic Blogger Martina Kreitzer | CatholicMom.com-[…] Martina Kreitzer is one of those people who, when I finally do meet her in person, I’ll feel like I’ve known for practically forever. It has as much to do with how at ease she is in her writing as it is with the blogging she does. […]May 28, 2014 – 5:54 amReplyCancel

Katie-Thank you for finding me! I love your about page, i feel like we are friends and can hang out now, even though i am a Methodist from Pennsylvania and never set foot on Texas soil. 🙂
I look forward to following your blog! My town is a very Catholic town, i will tell all my Catholic friends to follow you.
KatieOctober 22, 2014 – 6:39 amReplyCancel

Bob Johbson -I have just posted on FB a writing using the words you furnished for Lent. 45 down & just shame today & dazzling tomorrow. I will try to friend you in case you would like to read them. Happy Easter!March 26, 2016 – 10:29 amReplyCancel

Mona -Hi Martina, I read your post about IUD. I suffer from endometriosis and had one inserted a few weeks ago. I am not married yet but was wondering whether I should keep it after. There are some people who believe that you can practice NFP at the same time to avoid fertilisation. The problem in my case really is that I cannot possible live without hormonal treatment, and limited hormonal intake which doesn’t affect fertility didn’t work. The risk that my ovaries would have to be removed if the illness went untreated is very high. So what is your advice to Catholic endometriosis patients?February 26, 2017 – 5:31 amReplyCancel

Elizabeth-I just found your blog! I am the President of the Catholic Women’s Conference of Denver! I am going to pass your name along to our conference planning committee! Thanks for all you do!! The world needs women like you!November 25, 2017 – 9:32 amReplyCancel

Martina Kreitzer-Thank you!! We sure do appreciate your support and look forward to seeing how we can work together. God bless! ~ MartinaNovember 28, 2017 – 8:29 pmReplyCancel